From Stoke to Stoke

The hanging of Gary Glitter

ggoodwin@fsmail.net — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 13:26:06 GMT

Did anybody see that last night?
I found it an uncomfortable yet compelling drama on a number of levels, the first being 'what was the purpose?'
- was it to re-address pressure onto Paul Gadd, to hound him further? Don't get me wrong, i have NO sympathy for what he was convicted of, but find the hounding of him through this drama a bit of a lynching.
- was it to re-examine the conviction? Don't see the point of that since he is not seeking to clear his name and nobody is calling for such a thing.
- was it to debate the rights and wrongs of capital punishment? i'm not aware that a debate is currently on, and thankfully believe that it would never/could never be re-introduced. If it was meant to spark a debate, then it seemed one sided and populist. Given that there is no current debate on the subject, was it to start one? if so then i really fail to see the point.Back to the balance issue, there were lots of points made about the views of victims and victims families, usually the strong characters, only one quite weak defender of human rights and no mention of the mass of wrong convictions that spread over the history of law.
- was it simply meant as a good drams? well here i think it generally was. McCready played an excellent part as GG and it was only spoiled by my constant search for answers to the other questions, that may not have come up had a non living or fictional person been used in the story.

a good effort i think!

ggoodwin@fsmail.net — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 12:41:02 GMT

Woke at 7am on saturday morning and got back to bed at 5am Sunday - 22 hours!
In betwen i drove over350miles, visited family, saw a football match, went to tg (as a zombie soldier with gouged out eye).
Sunday did nt happen though to be fair - out of bed at 1pm and no need for make up to look like a zombie at all.

Work again today (booooo!) but feeling reasonably recovered.

Hows things in the clean world?
Why am i asking here?

SLAP NICK GRIFFIN!

ggoodwin@fsmail.net — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 09:46:22 GMT

http://www.slapnickgriffin.co.uk/

I hope that sinmara does not mind me re-posting this but it needs to go to the masses. I will spend many a happy hour on this site.

New York pictures

ggoodwin@fsmail.net — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 11:53:51 GMT

As promised, if anybody is interested, here are some pics from New York;
http://www.calebg-photography.com/website/htm/calebg36.htm - The Swing46 Club where i took pictures for Kelsey Jillette and The Bigbang Bigband(international photographer or what!)
http://www.calebg-photography.com/website/htm/calebg35.htm - Coney Island
http://www.calebg-photography.com/website/htm/calebg34.htm - Manhattan

Hope you like!

So good they named it twice!

ggoodwin@fsmail.net — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 13:41:09 GMT

It's been many years since i visited New York and my brother had never been so we traveled there as virgins for our 4 day trip. And what a trip!

Friday was really just about travel, settling in and finding our feet. The flight was a 7 hour, uneventful affair but i did get to see 'The Taking of Pelham 123' which i enjoyed very much. From Kennedy Airport to the hotel was smooth and gave us good views of the sedate, (by comparison), suburbs of Queens prior to the madness of Manhattan. Hotel Affinia 50 whilst more functional than elaborate was none the less light, airy, comfortable and very well situated near to 'The Rock', Times Square et al. We found a good local bar, cocktail bar and restaurants for breakfast but made a mistake for dinner (a very dry, plain buffalo burger).

Saturday was down to action and lots of walking. A boat trip to Liberty and Ellis Islands took up the morning and though the weather was dull, the trip afforded great views of the Manhattan skyline and the sheer scale of the city. Ellis Island particularly was a moving journey through the history of immigration to the USA over the centuries and though of course it had lots of the usual flag waving, did not shy away from the less impressive parts of the history of immigration and of the destruction of native American culture. Off the boat it was then for a long walk - Ground Zero to Wall Street, to The Bowery, China Town and Little Italy.
Ground Zero is still basically a building site but a hugely poignant place to see and experience and the similarities with the way The City of London and the East End developed and lived alongside each other were remarkable. Obvious and indulgent wealth in the financial district sitting alongside the poor areas around Fivepoints and the Bowery matched very well how the 2 matching areas in London developed over the years, with the Bowery now becoming much more Bohemian. The Lower East side has been almost totally redeveloped just as Docklands has been in recent years.
Walking through China Town was great, sampling 'bubble tea' as we meandered and engaging in the sights, sounds and smells of a culture that retains its uniqueness through the years. China Town has encroached upon Little Italy so much that the latter is barely more than one or two blocks now, but as we walked up Mulberry Street, a real sense of the Italian American was evident. One place of huge interest to me was 'Umberto's Clam House' a restaurant in Little Italy where in 1972 a famous gangland murder took place. I have a painting and photograph of the time in a book at home and it was great to stand on the same spot, to take a coffee and cannoli in a cafe opposite.
After the experience of Little Italy we were in the mood for Italian food and so in the evening we visited an Italian Restaurant near to the hotel (I had a wonderful lasagna) before we visited the Rockerfeller Centre, watched the ice skaters and took some night time pictures from the top (great views of The Empire State Building).

Sunday saw us heading north to Harlem, in steady rain but still engaged by the sites and sounds of the area. We sat in gospel church, enjoying the amazing gospel and soul music, the obvious enjoyment of the congregation and the community spirit within before taking soul food at Sylvia's Restaurant - fried chicken, garlic mash and black eyed beans for me and ribs for my brother. The local Harlem beer is great too. We also took in the Empire State Building and Rock once more, this time in the light (though rain and cloud reduced our viewing pleasure considerably). We found a great bar, The House of Brews where we drank such delights as 'Rogues Dead Dog' whilst watching American Football and having great crack with local New Yorkers who loved our accent, 'go on, say tomato again!' and were very impressed at our venturing to Harlem. 'Hell, i lived in New York all my life and i aint never been to Harlem' said one nice chap.

Monday and the subway, first to Coney Island and then to Central Park. Coney Island is basically closed for the winter but still gave a great sense of stepping back 30 years. It was a warm, clear day so nice to be at the beach but Coney Island reminded me of places like Rhyl in having seen good days but now being on its backside as it loses out to more glamorous locations for holidays and apparently much of it is soon to be bulldozed and replaced by condos, not a surprise given what we saw but still sad that such heritage is being lost to progress.
From there, the contrast with the Upper East Side and Central Park was all the more striking. Not much to see at The Dakota Building but at least i can say that i have seen where John Lennon was shot, and Strawberry Fields is a nice memorial to him. Central Park is a real haven away from the hustle and bustle and good for re-charging our minds and bodies for another busy evening, this time at a Jazz/Swing Club on West 46th Street.
After another 'Dead Dog' and chat with the locals in House of Brews, this time to a backdrop of baseball, Jazz48 is just a few doors away - great food, good atmosphere and a very good ambiance. A band called The Bigband Big Band with lead singer Kelsey Jillette were playing, a really nice and talented bunch of people, and soon we were in amongst them and in return for guest list ($30 cover charge for every body else) i agreed to take some pictures so was paid again for doing what i love doing, this time in New York. They have played in London before at Bush Hall and have promised to let me know when they come back and a visit to see them would be an evening well spent. Then we hung out on Times Square (as you do) for an hour before retiring.

The last day was more sedate - Greenwich Village. Union Square, Washington Square Park and the streets around it are great; great, funky shops, farmers markets, lovely and diverse people and the best people watching in the world i think.
And that was that. Back for our bags, taxi to the airport and home (six hours return flight) and now i have worked through the jet lag and am working on the pictures. They will be posted soon.

hello everybody.....

ggoodwin@fsmail.net — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 21:01:23 GMT

how are you all?
Been a while since i put any photo's up so here go's;

Mow Cop is the highest point in Staffordshire and has an amazing 'folly' at its summit. This was at sunset a few weeks ago.

Brighton

And this week at Kensington Roof Garden taking pictures for the lovely Rachel of Circa Burlesque

New York New York

ggoodwin@fsmail.net — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 12:36:25 GMT

So good they named it twice!

After an excrutiating wait for my brother to be granted a visa (a whole other story of police corruption from years ago to explain why he needs a visa), its finally confirmed and he and i are off there in 3 weeks....... i've just ordered dvd's of Kojak and Hill St Blues to research on how things will be ;-D

can't wait!

Most depressingly.......

ggoodwin@fsmail.net — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 10:23:24 GMT

after some months with the windows permanently open at the domicile, 3 days ago i had to close them, and just a few minutes ago had to turn on the central heating......... goodbye to the summer, here comes autumn and winter and on go's the sad lamp!
Oh..... and i might have become diabetic! bugger!

you can impress me with a calculator!

ggoodwin@fsmail.net — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 10:17:06 GMT

Hi all,
looking at new pc's on a discount scheme from work...... what are the thoughts on these and the best to have?

MSI GT729 Laptop
Intel® Core™ 2 Quad Processor Q9000 3 Year MSI Extended Warranty
> 4 GB of DDR3 SDRAM > 500 GB SATA Hard Drive > Blu-Ray® ROM with SuperMultiDVD±R/RW DoubleLayer > 17” 1680x1050 WSXGA+ Widescreen > ATI Mobility Radeon HD4850 Graphics 1GB DDR3

Sony VAIO FW41M/H
Intel® Core™ 2 Duo P8700 > 4 GB of DDR2 SDRAM (2x2GB)> 500 GB Hard Drive> Blu-ray Disc™ Combo Drive (reader) > 16.4” X-black LCD with multiple lamp (1920 x 1080) > ATI Mobility Radeon™ HD 4650

HP HDXX16-1310EA
Intel® Core™ 2 Duo P7300 > 4 GB RAM > 320 GB Hard Drive > Blu-Ray® ROM withSuperMultiDVD±R/RW DoubleLayer > 16” Dual channel LVDS FHD AG Dual Lamps with Bright View > NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 130M 512 MB GPU Graphics

A Northern Soul DJ in St Petersberg?

ggoodwin@fsmail.net — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 09:12:59 GMT

wow, that was a mad dream last night!

having seen my record collection, Roman Obramovich was so impressed that he booked me to DJ every Friday night at a club in the said city, though for some reason in my dream it had reverted to its old name of Leningrad.

the room was a huge, square, bare space with paint peeling from the walls and the crowd of perhaps 500 that were in sat in theatre seats around the wooden dance floor. The stage was huge, with massive speakers and amps.

they danced like crazy and my set was awesome by the way, even though i had got delayed in traffic and almost missed my flight, thus arrived flustered. I seem to recall an issue at check in with my record cases as well, (they were too heavy obviously).

got me to thinking though...... there must be somewhere in London that a good collection of Northern Soul would have an appreciative audience!

Clowning.

ggoodwin@fsmail.net — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 10:18:17 GMT

If truth be known i am hankering for the smell of grease paint and want to perform again! Also, because i am back in the UK a lot more now, i may enroll on a new course at Circus Space.

ggoodwin@fsmail.net — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 10:16:38 GMT

its been a while (again!) but truth be told there has not been much to report on;
VERY quiet at work, almost embarrasingly so. Having had months of madness, trains and flights at stupid o'clock, deadlines and pressure..... nothing. I mean zip! I'm waiting on a few work project kicking in but in between have nothing at all to do. I know that some people would like that, and i know i should take it given how mad it has been (swings and roundabouts and all that) but i hate having nothing to do.

I have started a study course that i won't go into but i think it will be fun and beneficial.

Did wedding photo's a few weeks ago, some quite pleasing ones i have to say and i will post some later, plus a few that i took in Brighton when i went for some sea air for the day.
Speaking of Brighton, TG was excellent and a chance to prance in my latex Zoot Suit! Left London at 8pm and got back home at 7am so felt well 'hardcore'.

A few days ago there was a march through the town outside my office of the RAF Regiment on their return from Afganistan. it was over in seconds but i got a couple of nice pics;

Also i have had a mad DVD buying fest and have lots of stuff to watch in the coming weeks; Unforgiven, The Outlaw Josey Wales, Martrix (all three), Roots series 1 & 2 plus some oldies that i had not seen for ages; Marathon Man (the excellent Olivier/Hoffman tale of Nazi Criminals and stolen diamonds and one of the best thrillers i have seen), Sea of Love with the equally excellent Pacino and very sexy Ellen Barkin, Zulu & Zulu Dawn (ripping yarns if ever there were any (though full of racial steriotypes and Empire 'love' that displease me) and finally.... Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid.
Now i have a love/hate relationship with Steve Martin but this is definately one of his highlights. If you have never seen it its a brilliant take on film noir, filmed in b&w that intersperces old movies in a very funny way. For those who have not seen it, its worth a look.

Other than that it's been visits to Stoke - great to see the family but sad to see my dad's continuing decline, a trip to the Czech Republic (wonderfull experience) and thats about it.
Family visiting me in London this weekend so i hope the weather stays dry!

over and out!

RIP Henry & Harry

ggoodwin@fsmail.net — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 12:43:02 GMT

In the last 2 weeks, the last 2 British men to have fought in World War 1 have died; Henry Allinghham, born in Clapton served in the fleet air arm, and Harry Patch fought at Ypres. The Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy has written a poem in their honour. It is a nice poem, but from reading it i deduce that she has read Slaughterhouse 5. You think?

LAST POST

In all my dreams, before my helpless sight,
He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.

If poetry could tell it backwards, true, begin
that moment shrapnel scythed you to the stinking mud…
but you get up, amazed, watch bled bad blood
run upwards from the slime into its wounds;
see lines and lines of British boys rewind
back to their trenches, kiss the photographs from home-
mothers, sweethearts, sisters, younger brothers
not entering the story now
to die and die and die.
Dulce- No- Decorum- No- Pro patria mori.
You walk away.

You walk away; drop your gun (fixed bayonet)
like all your mates do too-
Harry, Tommy, Wilfred, Edward, Bert-
and light a cigarette.
There's coffee in the square,
warm French bread
and all those thousands dead
are shaking dried mud from their hair
and queuing up for home. Freshly alive,
a lad plays Tipperary to the crowd, released
from History; the glistening, healthy horses fit for heroes, kings.

You lean against a wall,
your several million lives still possible
and crammed with love, work, children, talent, English beer, good food.
You see the poet tuck away his pocket-book and smile.
If poetry could truly tell it backwards,
then it would.

Reasonable suspicion?

ggoodwin@fsmail.net — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 12:19:55 GMT

Brazilian police have arrested the wife of a former world boxing champion, Arturo Gatti, who was found dead in a hotel in north-eastern Brazil.

Police say Amanda Rodrigues had not explained how she stayed in the room for 10 hours after he was apparently strangled with a handbag strap.

Birthday felicitations

ggoodwin@fsmail.net — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 18:31:13 GMT

To bettiebebe and to misstiamaria, my world is better for knowing You both.

How could i have lived without this before

ggoodwin@fsmail.net — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 10:59:22 GMT

http://www.thechap.net/

complete with the Chap Manifesto;

Something is amiss in society. At every level, the populace worships an unholy trinity of celebrity, vulgarity and self-regard, while qualities such as courtesy and savoir-faire are pushed aside in the name of progress. Here, in The Chap Manifesto, men and women are called to overthrow an indifferent and inelegant society by dressing very nicely indeed.
The Chap Manifesto
For too long we have been the playthings of massive corporations, whose sole aim is to convert our world into a gargantuan shopping ‘mall’. Pleasantry and civility are being discarded as the worthless ephemera of a bygone age; an age where men doffed their hats at ladies, and children could be counted on to mind your Jack Russell while you took a mild and bitter in the pub. The twinkly-eyed tobacconist, the ruddy-cheeked pub landlord and the bewhiskered teashop lady are being trampled under by the mighty blandness of the ‘drive-thru’ hamburger chain.
The principal victim of this blandification is Youth, whose natural propensity to peacock around the town has been drummed out of them, leaving them with a sad deficiency of conversation, imagination and joie de vivre. Instead their lives are ruled by territorial one-upmanship based upon brands of plimsoll; they have become little more than walking advertising hoardings for global conglomerates.
And what has Youth to look forward to? Toiling all day in front of personal computer screens, and then sitting all evening in halls of misery, where chemically-laden beer is fed to them as they ogle sports events on larger versions of the same screens they have been staring at all day. The resulting ‘culture’ of this state of affairs can be summed up in one word: vulgarity.
But the spectre of a new breed of insurgent has begun to appear on the streets, in the taverns and in the offices of Britain; that of the Anarcho-Dandy, recognisable by their immaculate clothes, the rakish angle of their hats and their rallying cry of “Good day to you Madam!”
While straggly-haired youths in balaclavas may shout their slogans and smash the windows of McDonald’s, the Anarcho-Dandies merely display the irreproachable cut of their suits, arch an eyebrow and take their custom elsewhere.
Yes, the Confederacy of Anarcho-Dandys (CAD) is here! By uniting the various strands of agit-fop under one ensign we will prevent the fragmentation that afflicts other ideological struggles. Thus, The Chap Manifesto may serve as a blueprint for all insurgents engaged in the Tweed Revolution.
Summon your tailors and seamstresses and sally forth looking simply splendid!

I LOVE IT

ggoodwin@fsmail.net — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 14:15:06 GMT

when a picture of mine is put to really effective use like this.

(click on the pic for a larger view)

so..... its been a while

ggoodwin@fsmail.net — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 13:24:33 GMT

since i posted anything here. A busy few weeks with lots of ups and downs;
Ups - had a great time in the Czech Republic, celebrated being in London for three years now, some good events and evenings.
Downs - my dad is visibly deteriorating and his dementia is getting more and more obvious, (whilst i don't think he will go quite yet, i am starting to think that the 'end game' has begun) and currently i am inexplicably exhausted for most of the time - starting the day well enough but fatigued and aching by mid afternoon and then just laying about in the evening with no energy.

ggoodwin@fsmail.net — Fri, 22 May 2009 15:20:34 GMT

And the first rule of fight club is.............................?

For animal lovers all!

ggoodwin@fsmail.net — Thu, 21 May 2009 13:20:39 GMT

http://www.themeatrix1.com/

stolen with pride from sinmara

ggoodwin@fsmail.net — Wed, 20 May 2009 13:02:08 GMT

Off and on, for 11 years my propensity for tears has been greater than at any time in my life, but nothing is so certain in ensuring them than Schindler's List - from both horror and joy.

StokeFest

ggoodwin@fsmail.net — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 08:23:32 GMT

It would appear, sadly, that StokeFest is no more!

That must be a relief....

ggoodwin@fsmail.net — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 08:41:03 GMT

to have an easier foil to push into the news and take away from the other more 'embarrasing' incident within the police force of the day before.
The Chief Commissioner must be thanking the 'bury bad news God' for a chance to move the threat of terrorism back to the top of the agenda rather than the threat of masked policemen beating innocent people.

My journey.

ggoodwin@fsmail.net — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 12:09:34 GMT

For a number of years i have been feeling increasingly uncomfortable about the world i live in, the system that supports me/i support (here is my first confusion), the whole political & 'establishment' system that regulates us, the system of policing.... so much more to list. Last nights news of the assault upon Ian Tomlinson took me to a new level that i am uncertain i will be able to come down from.
It's a long rant so to protect the bored

My first memories of the state and of society were, no surprise, very naive and accepting of whatever i was told, (i still laugh at the memory of my dad telling me that he was a spitfire pilot in the war). I was one generation past those raised in the heyday of the empire, when all British people thought that we had fairly and generously brought order to the world, protected and educated the unwashed of our ex Empire and they should be grateful for our help.
School lessons still taught that 'the best steel in the world is British steel', and TV adverts for Cadburies dark chocolate used the 'Dark Continent' strap line.
TV news told me that Catholics in Belfast were IRA terrorists because they attacked the British Army, but the French Resistance were heroes because they fought the invading Germans.
Likewise, the Viet Cong were bad because they were communist and the American invaders to Vietnam were liberators and defenders of the free, and the word 'Palastinian' was a bye word for 'evil. bombing terrorist'.
Totalitarianism was relegated to '1984' and to The Soviet Union, Vietnam, China.
The courts were always right, well apart from that poor Timothy Evans fellow but we put that right by making a movie about it, and it could never happen again..... the Birmingham Six definitely did it, as did the Guilford Five, and the murderers of Carl Bridgewater.
The police were selflessly here to protect us, sought the truth at any cost and only ever hurt the guilty.
I know that it sounds incredible, i know how naive it all looks now, but that was how it was for a working class lad from deepest North Staffordshire.
So when did it begin to change for me, and where am i now?
God, so many small steps have moved me ever so slightly, each one making the slightest difference, like the little hand of a clock that moves, but does so with such slow speed that only by going back later can one see that it actually has.

I think that my first uncomfortable views were when the legal system was first explained to me, i think i was 9 or 10, and i first began to grasp the adversarial nature of law and told that this was what made it so fair, this and the jury of 'twelve good men and true.' I remember asking myself how '12 good men and true' like my Uncle Joe (illiterate and racist) would protect a black man charged with burglary and went a little quiet. I remember wondering how a prosecution lawyer or policeman would deal with coming across evidence of a prisoners innocence and thinking, of course they would say something... wouldnt they.
Later i asked myself why the French Resistance were freedom fighters but the Viet Cong were terrorists, why the IRA (and thus Northern Irish Catholics) were murderers, and yet Ian Paisley was 'loyalist'.
I am now ashamed to say that i did not always think further on my discomfort as i grew and developed... i had school work to worry about, girlfriends to find, music to dance to, a wedding to plan, a marriage to build, a family to raise, a career to build. And yet without really thinking about it i remember a point, i dunno, maybe 15 years ago when things began to change.

I remember an interview, i don't know who it was, a man from The West Indies, giving his view of the gift of Empire to his nation..... 'like raping a woman but expecting her to be grateful for being given a ride home afterwards'
I remember one Irish 'marching season' when Ian Paisley described one of the most contentious Orange Marches as a group of men 'walking home from Church on a Sunday morning'
Protests have taken me perhaps the longest to come to terms with..... never able to fully accept the perceived wisdom of the press that said protester=thug, and never really supporting the view that the police had only the objective of protecting 'us' from wrong doers...who is 'us'? i asked myself, but then not thinking more about it, and whilst i knew that the 'few rotten apples' theory applied to both police and protesters, gave the benefit of doubt to law and order.

I remember the Thatcher years, when whole towns and cities were blighted by her policies, estates that now have 3rd generation unemployed and are castigated for being the 'Shameless' generation. Now don't get me wrong, i hate idleness, hate the manipulation of the system to support some of the scummy people in those estates, and i see 'class' being confused with 'standards' (i am from a working class background and have standards) but scum exists everywhere. How different is Fred Goodwin, the countless MP's claiming for 2nd homes when the live closer to Westminster than i do. On the other side, i look at the dirty video claim much less angrily.... i do expenses every month and you should see me with dozens of bits of paper on my desk, the ones that i lose or the maths i have to do to remove things not claimable, add things that are claimable etc - its a nightmare and all that happened here i believe. I remember the coal strikes and police charges against striking miners - they were not protecting you or me, they were not preserving law and order - they were instruments of state control, and the fact that Arther Scargill was a wanker does not make what the police did right.

My problem is that i think i am too nice, too eager to believe what i am told, too willing to trust the system, despite its failings, to protect its citizens, too willing to give way for a quiet life. Or am i letting myself off the hook here?

One huge shock to my system was when that very establishment ganged up on someone close to me. I won't go into details but a member of my family was arrested, accused, charged and convicted of a crime, a crime that i know in my heart that he could not, would not, did not commit. The evidence was flimsy, based on the word of 2 people - a policeman (of course policemen never lie) and the other person involved (convicted twice of the same offence and offered a lower charge if he implicated my brother). My brother was 'bang to rights' , so much so that he was then pretty much forced to plead guilty in order not to be sent to prison.

Since the.... shite so many things, so much has happened, to me and in the world.

9/11... knowing that the world would never be quite the same again and yet despite those shocking events being hugely distressed to see war inflicted in my name upon a country far away. Yes the regime was a bad one, yes its population suffered under that regime and yes they harboured terrorists. Well, fuck, how much better are the lives of those people now? The ritual categorisation of all things Muslim as potentially terrorist, just as in the 70's and 80's all things Irish & Catholic were the same. Bin Laden is a terrorist, but we supported and armed him a few years before when the Russians invaded and he was a 'freedom fighter'

War in Iraq that despite whatever i am told was NOTHING to do with weapons of mass murder, NOTHING to do with any threat to us, but EVERYTHING to do with Bush family business, oil and corporate greed. Yes Saddam was a monster, but we supported him when he was at war with Iran, and again i ask.... how much better are Iraqi lives now?

London bombings when though i had yet to move here, i had found friends and formed a relationship with the city. An innocent man gunned down by the police, and i thought 'shit. it is NOT acceptable to say that the police were under pressure due to perceived terrorist threats and so this was somehow mitigation.'

ID cards - 'if you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear' Fuck You! I have nothing to hide but neither did my brother, neither did the Birmingham Six or the estimated 20% of people in prison for crimes they did not commit. Neither did Barry George or the countless other 'odd' people who happened to live, or walk near to where some high profile crime was committed. Just as i have nothing to hide, i have no wish to be catalogued and boxed so that some future bureaucrat or politician or policeman can make decisions about me, or lose my detail on some database, or monitor my actions, or justify beating me to death if i happen to be protesting at something. Jesus, i can imagine the police now if ever they searched my house - i could be the next Barry George, Nazi sympathising, war mongering, sexually deviant all round criminal.

Recession. How many people have trusted the system over the years, been fed the crap dished out to them that the state will provide, that hard work and prudence will ensure a safe future, etc etc, (and why i am ranting, don't you hate it when people say etc etc?).
Now don't get me wrong, capitalism has been great for all of us... capitalism has helped us all, contributed to the pleasant lives we have and opportunities that we take or not as we wish. i have a pretty fine life due to capitalism, but what is happening now disgusts me. Tony Benn used a fantastic analogy when considering how the banks and bankers have been bailed out after their greed and short term-ism brought about the near collapse of the system. He reminded us that when slavery was abolished, that it was the slave owners and not the slaves who were compensated.

G20. I have heard the phrase 'kettling' today on the news. I had never heard of it before. The state, in my name, is containing protesters into small areas, for hours on end and refusing to allow anybody to leave. In there are men, women and children... undoubtedly the vast majority completely innocent people protesting, as we all have the right, against things that concern us, and of course they never beat them, indeed they are doing it for their own good THEY DO IT IN MY NAME! They beat an innocent man, on his way home from work and nothing to do with the protests, (not that being a protester would give them the right to beat anybody). This is State Control. This is against all that i hold dear and against all of my instincts for fair play.

The frustration and anger that i feel becomes more acute as the day goes on.
We are in a police state. I know that now. It is 1984. And for all of these years i have been the ideal citizen for them to control and manipulate. I stood back, i swallowed their crap, i stayed silent when i should have spoken, i let my discomfort subside rather than express it. I assumed that the state, despite its failings was more a force for good than bad. I think it still, (and even this frustrates me) is but the margin of difference is tiny now.

OMG - have you seen this?

ggoodwin@fsmail.net — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 22:37:39 GMT

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/apr/07/video-g20-police-assault

thanks to Sinmara for posting this chilling video of the last views of the man who died at the G20 demo.... it seems he was beaten by the police shortly before he died!
He was not even demonstrating... he was trying to get home from work.

i simply do not know what to say about this.